Yo, reinstalling your computer is fucking tedious, even if you have your main data on a separate drive, and a well-organized set of peferences&profiles backups, and have pre-downloaded various system drivers and service packs for rapid pew-pew-pew install.

I reinstalled because at some point in some mysterious way some Trojan managed to invite itself onto my system and then crapped all over it. It was an interesting experience with all sorts of RootKit scanners and the discovery that Avast! really is better than AVG, but in the end you can't really trust your system anymore. So, I packed my stuff and blew away the system for a fresh slate.

I probably should have quick-formatted my 1TB drive, instead of a 2.5 hour deep format-the-fuck-out-of-it. Then again, you really want to be sure you've totally napalmed any insidious MBR rootkits that may or may not have been present.

PROTIP: It's really a fine, fine backup strategy to have one's data (photos, music, installers, projects) NOT on the drive you intend to immolate. Bonus; in case of new computer -> yank -> plug -> boot -> set drive letter -> ready*.

I should actually maybe swap the drives, because then I have 1TB for data and 160GB for progs, but maybe I'll just unleash my expansive wallet unto l'economie and fix me up another TB drive and donate the 0.16TB drive to a hapful organization such as the KB student/youth society.


*) incidentally, this is also how I make love to the ladies**.

**) I could not pass up this joke, and also wanted to beat Wook or Scot to the chase.

luckily, like wil, most of my data was on an external drive. anything else i wanted to keep from my old computer was easily transferred to it so when i brought my mini home, all i had to do was plug in the drive and everything was accessible (btw, thank GOD i'd formatted it FAT32. i don't know what i would have done if i'd NTFS'd it and it was unwriteable).

applications are proving more complicated. like, all that nikon software for my d70 which doesn't exist anymore (or NEVER existed) for mac. oops. and no one warned me that excel for mac sucked so hard. i'm going to have to install xp just for those two uses, it seems.

Yeah, but Hessie's the kind of person who's still using Firefox 2 because she doesn't like the way the chrome works in version 3.

Posted By: AndrewYeah, but Hessie's the kind of person who's still using Firefox 2 because she doesn't like the way the chrome works in version 3.

wow, andrew's channelling dor!*

anyhoo, the nikon downloading software would file and rename all my photos as they downloaded and, after five years, i've gotten spoiled by that. i've only had the mac a week. i'm still trying to figure out alternatives.

*btw, i didn't like the way firefox 3 performed, not chrome. you'll be happy to know, i'm using it on the mini now. =P

Posted By: GeorgeI consider it one of Mac's greatest features that I do not have to install some god damned camera-specific software in order for the computer to acknowledge the existence of my camera.

Same for Windows.

Posted By: hessie

Posted By: AndrewYeah, but Hessie's the kind of person who's still using Firefox 2 because she doesn't like the way the chrome works in version 3.

wow, andrew's channelling dor!*

anyhoo, the nikon downloading software would file and rename all my photos as they downloaded and, after five years, i've gotten spoiled by that. i've only had the mac a week. i'm still trying to figure out alternatives.

*btw, i didn't like the way firefox 3 performed, not chrome. you'll be happy to know, i'm using it on the mini now. =P

It was only a matter of time...